Lunch Bunch

Okay, for this week's Lunch Bunch, the question is:

If you could address a graduating high school class, what would you say?

Boy, do I want to go short and sweet or long and boring? Hmmmmm, I'll probably think I'm doing short and sweet, and end up with long and boring...

Its different being general to everyone or even just specifically for boys or girls. If I was just talking to girls, I would say BE NICE TO EACH OTHER, working together women can do amazing things--but put against one another we can be seriously awful.

One thing I have tried to have as a motto is: You will always feel bad about doing something wrong, but you will NEVER be sorry you did what was right.

I think I love this Mother Theresa quote though:

People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.
For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

And I think that about sums it up. :)

What would YOU tell them?

Schedule Schmedule

My kids are just going back to school today. Our district had a strike and they were out of school all last week and all this week until today. Now they're back and I can start that whole worrying about my kindergartner all over again. Its lovely.

But at least we can hopefully start our "school schedule" now, you know the one that says I should have showered by now...

I suck at keeping schedules.

I surely like to make lists and plans but thats about as far as I get most of the time. And I love it if I accidentally do something so I can cross it off. Thats awesome.

This is about what my day was like with all the kids home (in picture form):

It was craziness I tell ya.

This is how it is now with only the boys home:

A whole lotta this. Why are boys so gross?

I Like Everything But I Like The Computer Best

Hi guys. Yup, I'm posting two whole days in a row! Can you believe it?!

Anyway, I was contacted by the bloggers who started Blossoming Bloggers and was asked if I wanted to do a Lunch Bunch post. All it is, is sharing a recipe and a prompt question. You can click over there to see the recipe, the question I asked was:

"Do you make time for hobbies and interests outside of being a mom and how do you do it?"

I'm supposed to write an answer to it as well, but I'm more interested in knowing how you guys make time for your interests--thats why I asked the question! heh

Since I have about a million and one interests (I'm easily amused....look a butterfly!!), I try and stick to things that are beneficial to my family (like decorating my house for cheaper than buying stuff) or things that I truly love so that the time I do use away from my family is worth it.

I've always liked photography, but never had an opportunity in high school or such to pursue it much, after I started having kids, I was of course taking pictures of them as much as possible. I've always loved art and drawing and painting, but to pull out supplies is messy and the time it takes to paint can be ridiculous when you have small children. Photography is instantaneous for the most part. *Click*--you have art. Its sometimes hard to go back to drawing, even though I miss it. Besides the fact that photoshop also fulfills that artistic need I have. One thing I've done this year to encourage my photography hobby was to join a 52 week project, each week we get a new prompt and have to take a picture for the theme within the time frame. Its fun because its not just pictures of my kids and it stretches my imagination, I've loved it. (If you want to check out my project, you can go to my photography blog here.)

I have lots of interests that I've put aside until my kids are older, like quilting and serious sewing and I mentioned painting as well. One of the interests I find doable with little kids is reading, we can even do it together sometimes! I made it a goal to read 50 books this year and will be finished with that goal within two more books. Exercising is another interest of mine, although I've fallen in and out of that so much. My husband and I started doing the "Insanity" work out, I got about four weeks into it, without seeing very good results. My goal now is to just do something active every day with my kids, and hopefully that will be a good start.

My biggest interest is the computer, so I encourage growth in that area by spending as much time as humanly possible on it... And I'm interesting in being extremely rich, but just haven't quite got it down yet.

Alright then, obviously since this is all about me, I could go on and on... :) But really, let me know how you make time to grow your talents and keep your interests...well, interesting!

What is HAPPENING?!

Dude. It isn't even 11am and I am ready for this day to be over.

Our school district is striking, today is the first day of no school. So of course I want to sleep in. Do the kids get the memo? Of course not.

I'm laying in bed, and my one year old climbs up to me, and promptly throws his tiny bowling ball hard head right into my closed eye. There was a flash of light, I'm surprised I didn't have a vision or something.

I decide to kick him out and stay in bed and read to recover. He comes up again and promptly throws one of those hard cardboard baby books. RIGHT AT THAT SAME FREAKING EYE. I have a big old lump there and it hurts to blink. I've never had a black eye before, we'll see if my very first is caused by a one year old baby. Kristina, maybe you are right.

I decide to go downstairs in an attempt to not be mauled anymore. The kids are fighting, they are screaming. Besides being tired, hurt, annoyed and frustrated, Aunt Flo came to visit yesterday, so I'm also an evil witch.

Then the phone rings. Its the dentist office, wondering if we're going to make our appointment that started 10 minutes before. Uhhhhhh, I thought it was tomorrow. I had to have told her "I am so sorry!!" fifteen times and she never once said it was okay, she was mad at me. I feel like crap.

I'm cramping. My face hurts. My kids are being crazy, wild animals. One of my children screams at least every two minutes on cue. Someone please make it stop...

School Blues

I sent two of my kids off to school today. My oldest loves school, she's excited for school, she's responsible and I'm not worried about her at all. My #2 is starting Kindergarden and I AM FREAKING OUT.

You have to understand a couple things about her. First of all, she's tiny. And I mean seriously TINY. Like my three year old is bigger than her, like she's almost six and can seriously wear 3T clothes on her skinny butt. It makes me nervous that she'll be picked on. Plus its just heartbreaking to see her tiny little body sitting at that big table all alone...(control yourself woman!) Secondly, she's super quiet. She has a tiny little voice and when she's upset she curls in a tiny little ball and quietly weeps to herself. WEEPS! I just can't stand the thought of her being upset and crying in the corner where the teacher won't notice. Ugh. Also, the girl is sort of in la-la land, she is creative and funny and just does her own thing, which I love--but it might not translate so well sometimes. I'm so afraid she's going to be lost in there.

Now for the non-negative part:

The other day we went to the park, within minutes she was wrapped up in a blanket with two other little girls. She makes friends easily and she's not worried about dumb stuff. She doesn't usually let things bother her (because she's in la-la land...), so I'm hoping she'll just be kind of go with the flow-ish. She's sweet and cute and loves to do art and wants to write and read, so I'm SURE she'll have a great time.

Its just the not knowing thats making me crazy.

I may have hurried out to the car trying to hold back tears and then cried like a baby before I got home. And I HATE it when people get all emotional for the first day of school, so once again karma has come back to bite me...

See how my one year old comes up to her chest? Yeah.

Oh Yeah, I DO Have a Blog

Hey guys! Remember how my husband's in the army? And remember how last year he was gone for six months? Yeah. Dark time for me. I didn't blog a lot then either.

Well, I haven't blogged this month because he was in Korea. It wasn't nearly as hard this time because 1) I wasn't pregnant 2) I wasn't post-partum 3) It wasn't six months and 4) We've had some fantastic weather and that really helps me feel happy :)

So he got home Saturday and now some of the pressure I've had this month is lifted and I can think of other things besides: FEED CHILDREN-- PAY BILLS-- DON'T FREAK OUT-- FEED CHILDREN-- PAY MORE FLIPPING BILLS-- BREATH-- etc. etc. and so forth

At least I THINK I can think past that, here's hoping.

We went to the beach today. We've had great weather, but today was a little cooler and overcast, still really nice though so I won't complain because it wasn't raining. We had a little picnic lunch and played in the water and I'm trying to hold on to these last couple days before school starts and I have to have a normal schedule. Good luck with that Melinda...

So I have dinner to do right now but I'm going to leave you with this fantastic picture:

It never fails when I'm trying to get a good shot of her that somehow she ends up coming up with something crazy like this. She's great.

Until next time my friends!

And We Didn't Even Get Popcorn

I go to the movie theater maybe twice a year.

I do not enjoy the theater. Well, let me clarify, I do not enjoy the other PEOPLE at the theater. Because every other person in the theater besides myself is RUDE and LOUD and ANNOYING.

A few weekends ago my husband and I went to see "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows...part 2"--yes, in a theater. I am a HUGE Potter fan, loved the books, really enjoy the movies and sometimes a movie on the big screen is just so much better than on your regular old tv. So I was desperate to go see the finale to this epic series in the theater and my husband made that happen for me.

This is what we were barraged with: burping. We were surrounded on all sides by disgusting burps every few minutes. You think I'm exaggerating, but I am NOT.

When we first got there, there were only a couple other people seated, so we took the good seats right in the middle of the theater. Bad idea. As more and more people showed up, they squeezed themselves around us. Like right next to us. I like a seat or two as a sort of "cushion of protection" against the weirdos, but this didn't happen. And then it started...

Not the movie. The burping.

The guy next to my husband loudly burps. We look at each other. Seriously? Then he does it again. And again. Then a bigger group sat right behind us, they were a little older and quite loud, and they started burping as well.

It was just ridiculous people. The movie started and it seemed like if there was any sort of quiet moment, that was the time to burp. It was insanity!

So instead of coming away from that thinking I had just seen a fantastic movie, I came away thinking I NEVER WANT TO GO TO THE THEATER AGAIN!!

Boo for dumb people.

Less Money, Mo Problems

You know what?

I'm tired of being poor. I really REALLY am.

Before I go into this, I will start with a disclaimer: I know there are people in worse off situations than I am. I know that I should be grateful for what I do have. I KNOW. Believe me, I know.

Its just sometimes I get so tired of worrying about how we're going to pay this bill or where the money's going to come from to pay for this that just came out of nowhere. And I'm tired that every penny has to go to something responsible. Maybe sometimes I want to buy something fun, maybe I want to buy some clothes, maybe I want to be frivolous for two minutes without regretting it. Maybe I don't want to have to worry if its going to be okay to go out to dinner or to the zoo, like normal people get to do.

I shouldn't look at other people and compare their situations to mine, but it is SO HARD sometimes. Its like all these people are right there in my face constantly with their big houses and their money and I WANT THAT. I WAAAAAAAANT IT.

People are so judgemental towards people who don't have money too. If I told you I was on food stamps and you saw me at the store buying soda and chips, you would think I'm being irresponsible or wasting that free money right? Well, gosh dang, I can't buy anything, you're going to begrudge me some freaking chips too?! Do I get any sort of indulgence ever?

Honestly, I want to be rich because I want it to just be easy for awhile. There are a bunch of other things already that weigh on me, and I would like the money weight to be lifted.

That would be nice.

Okay, pity party over. I feel like I go through highs and lows where I'm okay with our situation and I realize that money isn't whats important in life, but then when things start to pinch I want an easy solution. And of course, nothing I come up with to make extra money is ever going to be instantaneous and solve all our problems, so I'm stuck feeling overwhelmed by it. Someday I'll figure it out. Or else we'll get rich and I won't have to. I really hope its the second thing... ;)

You Are What You...Hate?

Does it ever hit you that you're one of those people that does the things you hate about other people?

Do you know what I mean? You're like "I HATE it when people gossip!!" but don't realize how much you gossip yourself? Or you think, "People should really pray and read the scriptures every night!" except for the fact that you don't actually do it yourself. You think you do, but not really.

When my husband was gone last year, all of a sudden I was in charge of ALL the money. I hadn't had to pay tithing in a long time, since my husband always took care of it. Then there was the fact that we didn't start getting any income at all for almost two months (that was fun) so I guess it slipped my mind when the money started coming in. Then I had a conversation with someone about someone not paying tithing who said they were, and I was like "That is SO WRONG!!....wait a second...I HAVEN'T BEEN PAYING TITHING!!!" It wasn't a conscious thing, I just didn't realize I hadn't been doing it.

I got super sunburned yesterday and the day before. I hate chronic sunburners', like seriously, learn to put some sun screen on. It makes me crazy. And here I sit, burnt to a crisp because I didn't have sun screen to put on (the first day) and didn't put extra sun screen on my neck and face (just my arms) the next day. Stupid.

My husband's out of town this week, in Washington DC again. I let it sneak up on me and didn't actually prepare for him being gone, its like my brain is seriously not functioning--even worse than usual. Scary thought. I mean it would be a scary thought if my brain could think. But it can't process anything right now. I blame too much Mountain Dew. "Don't do it kids--it'll melt your brain!!" (Thats a quote by me.)

I'm lazy, and I don't like it. I would do something about it, but I'm too lazy to. And thats the honest truth.

I hate lazy people.

Achy Breaky--I'll Break Your Leg

Hellllooooo there!

So.

I'm back.

For reals this time.

My computer is fixed and I think I've made it to a happier, less stressful place and I am ready to blog again. I think.

You know what I feel like blogging about? You are so about to find out!

Last night my husband and I watched that "Surprise Homecoming" show. I really didn't think I could stand watching it, I was tearing up bad just watching the commercials. This wasn't planned either, we were just watching "Cake Boss" and this just so happened to come on afterwards, and we were totally sucked into it. It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be, especially because Billy Ray Cyrus is the host.

Can I say that man made me crazy the entire show?!

Just starting with how the man looks. He still has a mullet. Which makes me want to punch him in the head. Then he was wearing some ridiculously--and I mean ridiculous--tight pants. With a leather jacket. Gosh what a douche.

So then every time he opened his mouth it was some outrageous crap. At one point he was introducing this soldier during an assembly and was all, "This man is my hero. He is my biggest hero. Please applaud...(pulls out an index card and READS OFF HIS NAME) Cpt. Blah Blah Blah." Are you freaking kidding me?! You couldn't respect this man enough to remember his name?! Then he says some garbage at some point about how he can relate to having a child in a war zone and how hard that is...uhhhhh, he does?! And THEN he said something like "I am so glad I could do this for them." What, you really didn't do anything. They would have a homecoming whether he was there or not, whether it was on tv or not, he really didn't do much of anything. At one point he tried to make some joke about Miley waiting out in the truck and I wanted to kick him in the groin. He just came off as such an idiot. By the end of it, I was irked. I just think the host should be someone who has the tiniest inkling of whats its like to be apart of the military, but its a pretty intense situation and deserves someone that knows how to treat the families with some sensitivity.

Alrighty, that is all. For now.